Application of an Aerosol Model to Simulate Smoke and Marine Aerosols

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project involves the continued maintenance and development of an aerosol/cloud model and its application to describing the behavior and impacts of tropospheric aerosols. The model will numerically simulate sea salt aerosols, marine sulfate aerosols, as well as smoke. Results will be compared with data to better determine the sources of these aerosols, their impact on the climate system and on atmospheric chemistry, and the requirements for models to adequately treat them. The project will investigate the sources and distribution of smoke. Detailed regional simulations driven by real winds from the NCAR MATCH model will be performed and direct comparisons made with observations from several field campaigns and satellites. The product of this work will be smoke source functions that relate optical properties, optical depth, and plume height to the fire intensity, fuel type, and meteorological circumstances. The project will also apply the model to sea salt aerosols. Detailed regional simulations driven by real winds from the NCAR MATCH model will be performed making direct comparisons with observations. Sea salt has the greatest mass flux of any aerosol, and currently used sea salt source functions differ widely. The results should be improved source functions, and a better appreciation for the global distribution and climatologically importance of sea salt. In addition, the project will investigate the origins and evolution of marine sulfate aerosols and set the ground-work for a model in which both clouds and aerosols are investigated in the marine boundary layer. Marine sulfate aerosols are of great interest due to their production from biologically generated gases, and due to their influence on clouds. The details of the aerosol evolution in marine cloud fields will be treated. In order to fully understand how clouds respond to and influence aerosols, a fully coupled model needs to be developed. Broader impacts: This project will contribute to graduate education and the training of postdoctoral researchers. The modeling will contribute to on-going efforts to better understand the direct effects of aerosols on climate. The study of marine sulfate aerosols and of sea salt will help better understand the indirect effect of aerosols on clouds. The results should be new source functions for use in global climate models, better definitions of optical properties, improved understand of processes and evaluations of the needs for model realism.